The Importance of Destroying Malware

No one likes malware. In fact, pretty much everyone hates it. But it’s not the worst problem facing the world right now either. The problems in the online world pale in comparison to those in the real world, as a new poll from Kaspersky Lab shows.

We recently asked our Facebook friends to tell us what one change they would make in order to make the world better overnight. While more than 1,500 people said that they would immediately destroy all of the world’s malware and cyberweapons forever, the huge majority of people had a more humane change in mind: ending world hunger.

Nearly eight thousand people said that making sure that everyone on earth had enough food to eat would be their top priority. That’s a nice thing to see, especially in today’s somewhat self-obsessed world. Most people seem to be more worried these days about how many Twitter followers they have or whether they have the coolest phone, and not so much about the welfare of their fellow man.

While more than 1,500 people said that they would immediately destroy all of the world’s malware and cyberweapons forever, the huge majority of people had a more humane change in mind: ending world hunger.

For some people, though, their charity extends to technological, rather than edible, necessities. For these people—almost 800 of them—the thing they’d like to change would be giving everyone on the planet a smartphone and wireless Internet access. Although that sounds a lot like today’s reality in San Francisco or London, there are still millions of people without either of those conveniences.

Interestingly, there are also quite a few people who think that the best way to improve earth would be to get people off of it. Nearly a thousand people said that the best choice would be to establish a colony on Mars—perhaps for those of us who’d like to get away from all of the people with smartphones.